It is astonishing to think that
at the beginning of this century Vivaldi was virtually unknown to
everyone except a few scholars. Indeed only a fifth of his works
had been published in his lifetime. So unknown was he that the
great violinist Kreisler got away with composing a concert and
passing it off as Vivaldi’s.

This changed before the second world war when the Silesian
fathers in Piedmont contacted the Turin National Library
requesting assistance in identifying crates of music which they
had discovered. When the library examined the crates they
discovered hundreds of autographs of Vivaldi’s works. Their
excitement was immense yet they feared to make it public lest the
collection fell into the hands of unscrupulous auctioneers and
private collectors. In great secrecy they set about searching for
a patron who would buy the collection for the library. Finally a
Turin citizen donated the money and the collection was named after
his deceased son. From that time on musicians were able to
discover under one roof the wealth of material which this
collection opened up to the world and the genius of Vivaldi was
recognised.